ASME to Honor Romesh Batra and F. Suzanne Jenniches

Romesh C. Batra

Romesh C. Batra, Ph.D., and F. Suzanne Jenniches will be among nine engineering leaders who will be recognized by ASME for their contributions to the profession at the 2015 Honors Assembly this November, to be held in conjunction with the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition (IMECE) in Houston, Texas.

Dr. Batra, the Clifton C. Garvin Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, will receive Honorary Membership in ASME during the ceremony, which will take place on Nov. 16. Established in 1880, the founding year of the Society, Honorary Membership recognizes a lifetime of service to engineering or related fields. It is the highest level of Society membership.

Batra is being honored for the outstanding mentoring of more than 100 graduate students and postdoctoral fellows; and for his pioneering work in applied mechanics including rubber-covered rolls, nonlinear elasticity, laminated plates, functionally graded structures, instabilities in microelectromechanical systems, mechanical characterization of carbon nanotubes, and adiabatic shear banding.

Batra joined Virginia Tech as Clifton C. Garvin Professor of Engineering Science and Mechanics in 1994. In addition to teaching graduate level courses in continuum mechanics, nonlinear elasticity and the finite element method, Batra's responsibilities at Virginia Tech include mentoring graduate students in their dissertation research, collaborating in research with postdoctoral fellows and visiting scientists, and Increasing the international profile of the department and college.

An ASME Fellow, Batra served as associate technical editor of ASME's Journal of Engineering Materials and Technology from 1996 to 2000, and chair of the ASME Applied Mechanics Division's Elasticity Committee from 1995 to 2000. He has organized symposia for the Society's annual IMECE conferences, and has co-edited four books and journal volumes that were published by ASME. In addition, his group has published 400 peer-reviewed papers in influential journals, and he authored a graduate-level textbook, Elements of Continuum Mechanics, which has been adopted at many universities.

F. Suzanne Jenniches

Jenniches, a former vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman Corp.'s Government Systems Division, will be receive the Kate Gleason Award at this year's Honors Assembly. The award, established in 2011, recognizes a female engineer who is a highly successful entrepreneur in a field of engineering or who has had a lifetime of achievement in the engineering profession. The award pays tribute to the legacy of Kate Gleason, the first woman to become a full member of ASME.

Jenniches, who began her more than 40-year career as a high-school biology teacher, is being honored by the Society for outstanding leadership in manufacturing innovation; for setting the highest standards of excellence in producibility engineering; and for her continuous efforts to increase women's participation in STEM careers.

After working as a teacher for five years as she earned her master's degree in environmental engineering from Johns Hopkins University, Jenniches joined Westinghouse Electric Corp. in Baltimore, Md., as a computerized test engineer in 1974. She climbed the ranks at Westinghouse from as supervisory engineer of robotics development for electronics manufacturing to operations program manager before being appointed manager of systems and technology operations in 1986, and then manager of defense and nondefense profit and loss operating units for Westinghouse Defense in 1989. Following Westinghouse's acquisition by Northrop Grumman Corp. in 1996, Jenniches went on to serve as vice president and general manager of Northrop Grumman's Government Systems Division from 2003 until her retirement in 2010.

The chair of the National Academy of Engineering's EngineerGirl website since 1997, Jenniches is past president of the Society of Women Engineers (SWE) and past chair of the American Association of Engineering Societies (AAES). She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including SWE's Achievement Award, AAES's Chair's Award, and the Technology and Engineering Educators Association of Maryland's Advocacy Award.

The ASME Foundation is the proud supporter of the ASME Honors and Awards program through the management of award endowment funds set up by individuals, corporations or groups. For more information on the special events scheduled to take place at the ASME International Mechanical Engineering Congress and Exposition, visit www.asmeconferences.org/Congress2015.